'Staying Alive' Made Easier

Popular songs may help save a life when performing a simplified CPR technique, plus the week's health news

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The Bee Gees' disco-era classic “Stayin' Alive” could be a lifesaver.

It’s long had a beat that you can walk down the sidewalk in a white polyester suit to, but it also provides near-perfect pacing for performing a simplified form of CPR, or so says the American Heart Association.

Hands-Only CPR is simple and can be performed by most anyone. Even better, it can be a lifesaver when no one properly trained in standard CPR with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is available.

The first step is to have someone call 911, or dial it yourself if you have to, tell the dispatcher what’s going on and give precise details of the location. Then put your cell phone on speaker so the dispatcher can help you, and get to work. Press hard and fast on the center of the victim’s chest between the nipples, pressing about 100-120 times per minute.

Just think “ah-ha-ha-ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive,” and you’ve got it down.

And if you’re no fan of disco? Any other tune that gets you going at about 100 beats or so a minute will do. Check out this eclectic playlist from New York Presbyterian Hospital with tunes from artists including Modest Mouse, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Missy Elliott and Queen.

The AHA also has a Spotify playlist with more contemporary tunes to get you moving to the proper beat.

You can learn more about the technique and create your own CPR-beat-friendly tune when the American Heart Association’s Hands-Only CPR Mobile Tour makes stops in Richmond on Saturday and Monday.

An event will be held from noon to 3:30 p.m. Saturday outside the University of Richmond’s Robins Stadium, and a community CPR event is set for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at Sports Backers Stadium, 100 Avenue of Champions. Food trucks and Sierra Nevada beer will be available at the Monday event, which is  sponsored by AHA, Richmond Sports Backers and VCU Health.

The Anthem Foundation provided a grant in support of the heart association's hands-onlly CPR campaign.

You’ll use a looping pedal to create your song, which will be played back as you learn the technique. It will have the appropriate timing of 100 to 120 beats per minute.

“Music brings people together in many ways and can be an effective teaching tool for CPR,” says Michelle McLees, director of communications for the AHA in Central Virginia. “By giving people the opportunity to create their own songs to learn CPR at these two events, the American Heart Association is providing a memorable experience that will hopefully inspire others to be prepared to take action and start Hands-Only CPR if they witness a cardiac arrest.” 

Training also will be conducted in groups to popular tunes selected by participants. Instructors will be on hand for those 20-minute sessions. Participants will also receive free training materials, including a practice dummy. Such training usually costs about $38. 

Why take the time for this? Because you could save a loved one’s life. The Heart Association says that more than 350,000 Americans go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year. This simple form of CPR has proved to be just as effective as traditional CPR if administered early, according to AHA. Also, if you’re trained in the method, you’ll be more confident and more likely to try to save someone who may be in cardiac arrest. You could double or triple a victim’s odds of survival if you’re able to do this simple technique.

"The most likely place that someone will suffer cardiac arrest is in the home, which makes it extraordinarily important to know CPR," says Jeff Ferguson of VCU Health's emergency medicine department. "Knowing CPR not only increases chance of survival, but it extends our ability to care for a patient by allowing everyone to be part of the treatment team."

CAPSULES

A weekly roundup of health and medicine news

  • You can kayak at a leisurely pace or make a race out of your 10-mile trek at the annual Paddle or Battle on the Appomattox River. Friends of the Lower Appomattox River are the sponsors of this excursion upriver from the Hopewell City Marina to Pocahontas Island in Petersburg, to be held 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 24. There will be shuttles available in Petersburg to take you back to Hopewell. Admission is $15-$25 and benefits FOLAR’s river stewardship and conservation programs.
  • Paul Farmer is the keynote speaker for the 2016 Weinstein-Rosenthal Forum at the University of Richmond. Farmer is a physician known for his philanthropic work. He’s in Harvard Medical School’s global health and social medicine department and founding director of Partners In Health, an international nonprofit that provides health care and seeks to improve health outcomes for people in poverty across the world. The free event is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the Modlin Center for the Arts.
  • What better way to promote mental health awareness than through kickball? That’s the thought process behind the Kick Stigma Charity Kickball Tournament, Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Bon Secours Washington Redskins Training Center off West Broad Street. You can sign up your team for this fundraiser for the Beacon Tree Foundation. The event also includes beer and food trucks, an activity area for kids, and music. Tickets are $40-$50, with proceeds helping the foundation enhance access to early intervention and treatment of mental health issues in children.
  • Depression and diabetes may share an unfortunate, two-way link. “We've assumed for a while that diabetes can cause depression; that's not very surprising,” says Briana Mezuk, an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health at VCU Health. “What is surprising is the idea that diabetes and depression may be bidirectional and that depression, through both behavioral pathways, such as sleep disturbances and not exercising, and biological pathways, like inflammation, can lead to diabetes.” Mezuk received an American Diabetes Association grant for her study, “Stress, self-regulatory behaviors, and diabetes disparities,” according to a VCU Health release.
  • About 28 percent of Americans ages 50 and older are failing to exert themselves beyond the bare minimum it takes to get through the day, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Cancer deaths in kids declined 20 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cancers account for 2.28 deaths per 100,000 in the age group 1 to 19. The death rate dropped for boys and girls, though the death rate was 30 percent higher in boys.